The Vancouver Diaries- Prologue and Part 1

How do you write a blog post for the first time in Seven months? Do you start by talking about where you are now? Or do you reel off details that have been missed out in-between now and your last blog?  Well this is my dilema.

Hi, my name is Penni, I am 21 years old and my favourite colour is yellow. And this is a summary of what I have done in the last seven months of my life:

For those of you unaware, I lived in Vancouver for most of 2010 (it’s on the west coast of Canada, quite close to the US boarder).  Unfortunately I had no choice but to come home so I took an internship at a church in Reading in September 2010, but it wasn’t for me, so I quit and moved to Southampton, was unemployed for the most part, took up Salsa dancing, taught myself the guitar and Got a boyfriend called Sam. In June, I had the awesome privilage to visit Paris and Rome, moved out of my Southampton house, and hopped on a plane to Vancouver.

So,

now you’re up to date! well done!

oh yeah! I also learnt how to make mashed potato! (credit to Sam Miller)Which is probably my greatest achievement as I am very gifted at NOT cooking! haha (see bottom left picture).

Anyway so now I am here! and Will be here for 2 months until September 15th 2011. My Jetlag is about 90% gone! I slept in til about 7:30 am today which is alot better than 5:30am. Tomorrow I’m hoping I will sleep until 8:30! At the moment I’m staying with some AWESOME friends from church who are letting me stay with them for free! I am SO blessed, and SOOO thankful,  because without their help, I wouldn’t have made it over here.

Some cool stuff I have done since being here are as follows!:

A trip to the lovely Deep Cove!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some Yam fries!…

 

 

 

 

 

And a Tim Hortons Bagel!

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come!….

Adventures and Bagels,

 

Penni

Tea, Chocolates, Sofa, And A New Year!

Ahhhh new year’s eve and yes, I am so cool I am staying at home with my mum, her boyfriend, and close friend’s of mine whose house I am staying at right now actually!

This is the first new year’s in 3 years I have been in England so I feel a little sad to break my “being abroad for new year’s” tradition I had going on there for a little while!! ha ha ha. 2007/2008 I was in Florida at some kid’s house party..they had a private swimming pool and jaccuzi and everything! And their house looked out to some lake. It was real pretty, and then on new year’s day I went to the beach and tanned, but then I tanned too much and got sunstroke cos then my friend took me to some bar and grill place and I didn’t eat anything and then I crashed out in the afternoon from lack of sleep/sun heat…That was fun!

And then the year after that for 2008/2009 I was soo lucky and very privilaged to be invited to a place near Rotterdam in the Netherlands to go visit with a family and that was CRAZY INSANE. They have this rule over there that you are only allowed to set off home fireworks once a year (New year’s) and so everyone goes full out and gets super huge ones and sets them off like a foot away from where they are standing, and there were like 5 year olds throwing illegal bangers from across the border in belgium which felt like Earthquakes when they set off. I almost got hit by a rocket (which also happened to me at the millenium too haha!) but it was so much fun and everyone there was so nice and friendly and hospitable. I even picked up a tad bit of Dutch too!

In the Picture below, you can see all the shrapnel and rubbish left on the streets covered with litter from all the fireworks. It was EVERYWHERE! (I’m seriously glad to be alive, but oh what an experience!)

Finally in 2009/2010 I was no where else but in the one and only BEAUTIFUL BRITISH COLUMBIA..VANCOUVER! At my friend’s house and there were tons of awesome people that I met for the first time and we played games and hung out and sang songs and it was just awesome!

So this year I was planning on going to London to watch the fireworks but I have a few health problems so I can’t go..but OH WELL! I can watch it on telly! And I dont have to get cold and cramped and have to try travel back on new years day along with the rest of the universe who are also in London doing the exact same thing I would have been doing!

I have had probably the best and worst year of my life! I have experienced so much more than I could have ever imagined! I have had a few unexpected events occur (which I may write about sometime in the future) which have strengthened me and I have learnt alot of lessons the hard way!

I have made friends for life, and seen and lived in what I think is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I have been blessed beyond measure and I am sitting here so full of joy and gratitude for everything I have had this year! Unfortunately I am not ending the year on the best note ever… I am a little poorly and I think I am generally still not myself and getting through some stuff…especially for me christmas is kinda difficult emotionally and it’s been real tough for the past 8 weeks or so, in all honesty I have been so close to giving up hope and losing heart..I can’t believe how difficult it is moving back home!

BUT THAKFULLY I HAVN’T! hehe and I am SOOOOOO excited to see what 2011 has to bring and how God is going to use this year to do amazing things in my life and how he is going to use me to bless so many other people! And I am also really looking forward to seeing how much I grow from this tough patch I am going through and how much of a stronger, weathered, wise lady I become!

For all my wonderful blog followers I wish you the bestest 2011 ever! For those of you who are also struggling and having a not so fun new year’s please never lose heart! ever! God has such an amazing future in store for you, just you wait! In the words of Joyce meyer “Keep on keeping on!”

Lots of huggs and New year’s Hi-fives,

Penni Lane

<3

How to stay hopeful on a rubbish cold day

In my opinion it is a whole lot easier to feel grumpy when the dreary weather leaves you freezing cold and your phalanges rendered inoperable and altogether useless…

Today has been one of those days. I left some important documents by accident in one part of the country, some other important things in another town an hour away from it, and i happen to be staying in a third town- southampton to be exact.

A wasted day of over 6 hours travel and 30 quid or so. Sleety snowy globs of ice are sticking to my face and my fingers are a sickly deep purple-blue colour. I have never wished so badly for a magical teleportational device to zap me instantaneously into my nice warm bed avec nice hot fluffy pink water bottle and fleece blankets.

Still, a wasted day in the eyes of the world is never wasted from God’s perspective. So what can I learn from it??

1) Don’t forget stuff. I have tried teaching myself this lesson alot and yet still forget things- especially when there is alot of other things i need to sort out with my life such as job, house etc. Oh well, maybe this time it will actually work and i will never forget anything in my life ever again.

2) Patience. Public transport is a great blessing that im determined to try and appreciate despite severe delays and minus degree weather conditions. Learning to stand at a bus stop and be in a state of peace instead of staring down every car that passes by just incase it morphs into a double decker bus. I have a tendancy to be on edge when i am waiting for stuff instead if relaxing in the knowledge that the bus is definitely on it’s way and will arrive when the time is right. This principle transpires onto a larger scale of my life – particularly when i want an instant breakthrough, or when i am trying to figure out my life plan…I need to relax knowing that the ‘bus’ will arrive soon

3) Be thankful. Even when I feel like grumbling. Even when being thankful is the last thing I FEEL like doing, I still have the choice to control what I spend my time thinking about. Sometimes when we have a bad day it is more difficult to count our blessings. I have learnt to start with the obvious and reel off everything and anything I can think of that I am grateful for. Friends, family, my warm coat, my almost maxed out credit card, my pretty shoes, my fingers and toes and eyes and ears and hair and teeth and my health…shelter! And my fluffy pink hot water bottle.
Thankfulness changes perspective. Thankfulness is my metaphorical pair of windscreen wipers on my metaphorical car. And thankfulness during discomfort is faith exercised.

No rhyme, no crime

A kinda half rhyming half not rhyming poem from the bottom of my poetic 3am tired, emotional homesick heart!

(it may be argued that free verse- non rhyming poetry is a purer form of art!)

ooh also, the photo art in the background is also mine…. so i didn’t steal it! yay for originality!

Enjoy!

(click on the picture if you can’t see the writing, it will make it bigger!)

Why doesn’t the UK have thanksgiving?

Well, I am not really very educated as to why us Brits don’t have our very own thanksgiving day, but I sure think we should!!!..

so today I am celebrating my own thanksgiving day. Instead of turkey, I shall have Chicken flavoured instant noodles!!!

so what am I thankful for this UK thanksgiving??

 

My November 22nd Thanksgiving list

I am thankful for:

• My health!!- so easy to forget about when we have it, and so easy to remember when we are sick! Despite the bout of stomach flu I endured recently, my health this year has been pretty good!
• New experiences- This has without a doubt been the best year of my entire life. I have lived in an absolutely amazing place (the one and only VANCOUVER BC! ofcourse!) and I have met a whole bunch of amazing people alongside that. Even though I am very much suffering now by being away from there, I am still so thankful that I had the opportunity to live life there, even if it was only for a little while
• My dysfunctional  family- Relationships are on the mend, and when I find myself homeless, jobless, feeling hopeless and useless- I am still loved.
• My Friends- my primary support network. They have endured moody phone calls, whining, complaining, over excited ramblings about vancouver, and much much more. In particular I am thankful for those of you who encouraged me when I needed it, who rebuked me when I needed that too, and who were there for me in my lowest lows and highest highs
• My new phone!
• My ipod alam clock
• My laptop…despite my broken s button!
• Job-seekers allowance!
• My ability to read books!
• My fingers and toes!
• Joyce Meyer
• Peanut butter m&m’s
• Lifechurch.tv
• Bagels and cream cheese and instant noodles (my Vancouver staple diet)
• Coastal Church
• Lessons I have learned from various major mistakes I have made in the past year!

And lastly, and the most bestest of all of them, GOD! and his amazing grace and provision and love!

Yay for Penni Lane’s thanksgiving day November 22nd 2010!

I found this rather interesting article about other people in the UK having thanksgiving. Aparently it was November 4th

http://gouk.about.com/od/festivalsandevents/a/ThanksgivingUK.htm

 

Book time!!!

It’s 2 in the morning, and i’m so excited to have begun reading Charlie st. Cloud!

here is a lovily smily (makeup-less) picture of me with said book!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nighty Night friends and faithful blog followers

- Penni Lane

 

Just like sometimes

Sometimes things happen that we don’t expect…

Sometimes I wish it didnt happen…I get frustrated and annoyed…

Until some time passes and I realise… it is what it is.

So yeah, some big stuff has happened, but for now I’m not going to write about it, and I’m not going to think about it either.

I bought a book today- The Death And Life Of Charlie st. Cloud. I know it’s out all in the movie theatres and everything but I wanted to read it first…so what a great opportunity to do just that.

Sometimes, it’s probably for the best that I forget about my current situations and the troubles and complications and metaphorical mountains that lay ahead of me and take a mental vacation/holiday. Everything will work out in the end just fine. The only thing I was doing was over thinking about things I can’t change. So why not just switch off for a few days.

I don’t care if it’s right or wrong…I’m doing it anyway… clear my head…relax…then get on with it.  I suppose one could call it escapism, but why else was fiction created?! To escape your own reality and to enter into someone else’s shoes, someone else’s world for a little while.

During the last week, my faith in God has definitely suffered more than ever. I started off managing to pray two words. “Why?” and “HELP!”… I think they did the trick. I have argued, protested and even demanded stuff at him (didn’t get me too far..). I have thrown the biggest internal tantrum ever. I almost believed that he must have forgotten about me but remembered everyone else. I -at one point- decided that because he isn’t helping me, I have no choice but to take things into my own hands…and then saw how impatient I was being and UNdecided it shortly after.

(And for all the haters and self righteous, better than everyone else goody-goody Christians who are reading this and thinking how WEAK I am or how I should just say NICE things and for those Christians who think that the stronger your relationship is with God, the more you should go round HAPPY and smiley ALL the time because it shows how stable you are and all that… please do yourself a favour and drop the pretense. I’m sorry for offending anybody for being REAL about who I am. Lucky for me, Jesus didn’t come to save perfect people)

I still don’t understand anything. I’m still a very broken girl, with broken dreams and a dysfunctional life. I still make mistakes, I still doubt.

But he still speaks to me. Just at the points where my vision gets so distorted that I can’t see the bigger picture, he will refocus the image just enough to give me enough strength to continue forward.

Just at the point where I’m about to give up, he will do something to stop me.

Today he sent me this. I know it looks stupid. You might think “yeah whatever, OK God sent you that”, but that’s the great thing about God. He knows us inside and out, he knows us even better than we know ourselves. He is personal.

So here it is….I was just logging into my tmobile account doing some stuff, and had to do that security capcha thing or whatever and WALLA!

one word.

overcomes.

Penni overcomes.

“I made you to be an overcomer. I overcame Death, so you can overcome too.”

Romans 8:37- But we are able to overcome all these things and more through his love.

And so I’m going to take it easy (mentally) for a while. Living off of his strength, not mine. Not fighting him, not doing things my way…but let God sort my mess out,

Just like he always does.